In the high-volume, quick-service food industry, uniformity of product quality is essential, as is efficiency of product preparation, to meet customer expectations and remain competitive in terms of food quality and price and speed of service. One key aspect of uniform product taste is the uniform application of any granular seasoning to a particular food item, in terms of a consistent quantity of seasoning applied to each food item and an even distribution of the seasoning over the surface of the food item.
Existing granular seasoning dispensers have significant shortcomings with respect to uniformity of dispensed quantity, speed of dispensing, and/or evenness of dispensing distribution. For example, the evenly spaced apart apertures of the pour opening of a traditional household salt shaker only provide for relatively even distribution over an area roughly the size and shape of the pour opening, and the lack of metered flow control makes such a shaker clearly inadequate to provide a consistent quantity of seasoning on each of a plurality of food items.
On the other hand, previous attempts to provide a metered seasoning dispenser have resulted in compromises to the ease and quickness of operation as well as the evenness of distribution. For example, one existing type of metered seasoning dispenser employs a metering chamber in direct communication with a dispensing outlet, the metering chamber separated from a much larger reservoir by a system of baffles, such that holding the dispenser in a filling position causes the metering chamber to be filled with a metered quantity of seasoning from the reservoir, inverting the dispenser from the filling position to a dispensing position causes only the metered quantity of seasoning to be dispensed, and then inverting the dispenser from the dispensing position back to the filling position causes the metering chamber to be filled again. This system is reasonably effective for providing a consistent quantity of seasoning for each dispensing cycle. However, the repeated action of inverting the dispenser back and forth to season a plurality of food items is somewhat awkward and time consuming, while the rotational inverting motion of the entire dispenser imparts trajectories to particles exiting the dispensing outlet that are difficult to predict and control, thus jeopardizing the even distribution of particles onto the food item.
A need therefore exists for an improved metered dispenser for granular seasoning that is quick and comfortable to operate and that provides consistently uniform distribution and a consistent quantity of particulate or granular seasoning onto the surface of a food item.
A dispenser used in a quick-service restaurant may be used over a hundred times in a day. Thus, there is a need for a dispenser that is very robust.
Many prior art dispensers tend to have conical deflectors for spreading seasoning. However, such deflectors do not achieve all the desired patterns for spreading seasoning. Consequently, there is a need for dispensers with non-conical deflectors.